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Lead or Rumour info - Smouldering Hovel, Oxfordshire (July 2015)

28DL Full Member

This is the weirdest thing I've seen in a while. Near a main road in Oxfordshire my mate found this - what appears to be some sort of homeless village. There are several really interesting things about it, however.

1. It seems incredibly ambitious. Someone has put months (years?) into building a stone foundation, cutting and paving pathways and using a vast amount of newspaper, presumably for insulation. There are several structures, the main one possessing support beams and the stone foundation, as well as beautifully tended stone flower beds(!). There even seem to be pipes running around underground, though I don't know if these are part of the hovel. However, the main structure is missing a roof...

2. At first we thought it was under construction still, but at second glance it looks like it recently burnt down. There is in fact a significant amount of smoke coming from under the newspaper, as well as a lot of newspaper in the surrounding trees (as well as a spade, for some reason). The surrounding trees are burnt up to about head-level, suggesting that this was a large fire. There was what looked to me like an empty jerry-can nearby, so it may not have been a natural fire...

3. Clearly a fair amount of shady shit going down here. In particular, there were a large amount of bike parts scattered around. We found a pile of maybe 15-30 brakes as well as 3-4 chains and a similar number of wheels (some buried underneath the newspaper). Clearly this is the centre of some sort of operation, but I don't really want to be the one to fuck up someone's life by having snooped around their home without asking.

4. There were also some things I couldn't explain, like two huge piles - one of waterproof material and one of pillows. I would guess that they are intended to be used as building materials, but why not put the waterproofs on top of the pillows so they don't soak? Also there was a pile of tiny tubes of poster paint, an Agatha Christie DVD and a huge tome about ancient Greek history.

Obviously because we suspected it might be occupied we didn't take anything and left after only a short while, and also I'm not going to give away the location. I would be very interested if someone else knows this place, however. While we were exploring I saw someone stumble upon us and then run away, so if this wasn't the occupant (sorry!) clearly someone else knows this place.

Map: Drawn from memory. Dotted bit is paved path. Blue is where trees started, the rest was filled with long grass or paving stones. The big X-structures are teepees made out of logs, while the main structure you can see on the right (with the location of support beams. The cross-hatching is newspaper. You can see the two piles and the flowerbeds as well.

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Regular User

I can't actually see the photos, as the security settings on my office computer has blocked them. Are they pornographic??

But if this place is built of newspapers, then it doesn't resemble the film set of The Magic Roundabout but actually the film set of The Wombles, as seen here, for the Wombles went around Wimbledon Common gathering all sorts of litter. For your information The Magic Roundabout was all about consuming large amounts of recreational drugs. Yes children's TV has changed. Yes I am an expert on 1970s Children's TV. Any further queries regarding 1970s children's TV please direct my way please.

Regular User

I can't actually see the photos, as the security settings on my office computer has blocked them. Are they pornographic??

But if this place is built of newspapers, then it doesn't resemble the film set of The Magic Roundabout but actually the film set of The Wombles, as seen here, for the Wombles went around Wimbledon Common gathering all sorts of litter. For your information The Magic Roundabout was all about consuming large amounts of recreational drugs. Yes children's TV has changed. Yes I am an expert on 1970s Children's TV. Any further queries regarding 1970s children's TV please direct my way please.

Regular User

Never watched that one for it clashed with Captain Pugwash over on BBC1 - for the benefit of the young ones here, this was in the days before video and catch-up TV. We were always making life-changing decisions over whether to watch this or that. God it was tough in my day. The youth of today don't realise how easy they have it.

Regular User

I'm just regretting not being able to see knightmare live. Loved that show. Can't remember the years but remember things like batfink and his wings of steel, mysterious city of gold etc could say quite a few cause I used to watch loads and old movies like George formby and will hay marx brothers and old mother Riley lol